


Do squirrels fall in love, and other questions of the heart

by inheritanceofgeek



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Best Friends, Drunken Kissing, Drunkenness, Fluff, Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Set during episode 24, mentions of Vax/Keyleth and Keyleth/Kash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 11:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13480200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inheritanceofgeek/pseuds/inheritanceofgeek
Summary: Between Kash and Vax, Keyleth has been getting more and more confused. With the Briarwood's dinner approaching, it seems like no better time to take a sit back and have a drink with her best friend and try to figure out a few things.





	Do squirrels fall in love, and other questions of the heart

**Author's Note:**

> So on the Talks Machina Final wrap up, Marisha implied that Keyleth had a little moment where she thought she might be in love with Percy. This is that little moment. 
> 
> Unbetad, I'm afraid, so any mistakes are my own ^__^;;

It is Scientific Fact that Alcohol is a solution. Or at least that’s what Percy said, and Percy was full of clever things. It might not be the _correct_ answer, but it _was_ a solution. Solutions were what Keyleth needed right now because, hey guess what, life was big and complicated and sometimes there were evil tiger demons who wanted you dead. Sometimes there were also Clerics who were married to goddesses, and handsome half elf rogues who kept throwing themselves into danger, and lots of other stuff happening that was also complicated. _Sooo_ complicated. So yeah, alcohol. Alcohol and _lots_ of it.

And hey, if day drinking was a crime then let it be so because Keyleth had already been to prison and it wasn’t that bad because her friends were always there to bail her out. Percy would be there for her, Percy was always there because Percy was the best friend she’d ever had. The _actual_ best.

Pike and Vex were also great but they weren’t him. He was special, totally special and different and amazing. So when everything was getting complicated, it was Percy she turned to. Percy was great. 

In the build up to the Briarwoods dinner they’d been all nervously preparing their various schemes for revenge. Keyleth didn’t know what it was like to lose everyone in your family like that, to have everything stolen away from you in one swift moment; but she imagined it probably felt pretty awful. So she was more than ready to help Percy seek revenge on these people, so long as they deserved it. So long as no one else got hurt along the way. In her opinion though, Percy had needed to get out of his own head for a bit, and so they’d headed down to their favourite tavern for a drink. One drink had turned to two had turned to… many. Lots of many. Or should that be many of lots? Whatever, that was unimportant.

“Percy, Percy, Percy!” she slipped into the seat next to him with a fresh tankard and poked him in the arm until he looked around at her.

“Keyleth, Keyleth, Keyleth!” he replied, his glasses slightly skewed. The rest of Vox Machina had already trailed off home and it was just the two of them left over. Keyleth liked it when it was just the two of them.

“I’ve got a question for you,” she started, trying to think how to phrase it. Percy looked at her expectantly, swaying slightly but not saying anything. “You know a lot of stuff,” she began at last.

“That is very true,” he nodded in agreement,

“So you’ll know about the important things in life as well?”

“I am very important so I know all the important things too. Although not _all_ the things. But _shhhh_ ” he bought a finger to his lips “don’t tell the others that, they all think I’m brilliant”

Keyleth nodded wisely, then slapped him on the arm “Percy you are brilliant! You invented loads of stuff and things and, and you’re brilliant!”

“Ahhh, my evil plan has worked on you too.” he grinned, attempting to tap his nose but missing and poking his glasses instead. They both laughed about it for far too long, Keyleth leaning into him as he did so. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they settled down into their seats.

“So, what was your question?” he asked, looking down at her. “Be warned, I am little bit drunk.”

“Me too,” whispered Keyleth “Being drunk is fun though?”

“Waking up in the morning isn’t.” he retorted, a man ever ready to argue his way out of a good time.

“It’s not if you’ve got Lesser Restoration already prepared.” winked Keyleth, attempting to channel her inner Vex’ahlia. Percy’s snort indicated that she was perhaps a little far off the mark.

“Question, come on!” he slammed his now empty flagon down on the table, causing the patron next to them to burst awake. They both ignored her as she went back down onto the bar head first without complaint, “Ask it Keyleth. It’s clearly bothering you and I _bet_ it was why you asked me out to begin with.”

“I asked you out because you’re _you_ and not because of me!” said Keyleth, feeling slightly hurt that Percy had caught onto her plan. He was way too smart sometimes.

“Ahhhh, I don’t mind. Life is life right now and life needs to be lived and life, ahhhh life.” He sighed mournfully “Why do we even live? What is the point of it all? People, they die and then we live and, and revenge. That’s good, right? Revenge is good?”

Keyleth hesitated as she tried to understand what he was saying, but gave up after a bit and settled on: “Revenge is okay if you’re getting revenge on the right people. And life is good because you get to do things. You get to make friends, go on adventures, drink ale, turn into eagles, and have fun.”

“Yeah, I guess there’s that.” he mused in a melancholy tone “Then there’s the whole marriage and kids thing. I hear that’s popular.”

“Yeah, yeah that’s what I wanted to talk about!” said Keyleth excitedly “How does that work? Marriage and kids?”

Percy blinked at her, and then a slow smile spread across his face. “Well Keyleth, when two people are in love they share a special kind of--”

“NO! No no no _nooooo_ !” laughed Keyleth, punching him on the arm “I know about sex! Even squirrels have sex that’s not a problem, but I mean, how do squirrels _fall in love_?”

Percy frowned at her question “I mean, I don’t know if Squirrels _do_ fall in love? You should ask one of them, you’ve got that spell thing yeah? Do the spell thing! See what the squirrel husband says about his squirrel wife and why he had a different squirrel wife last year and why he left her and the kids for his new squirrel wife.”

“Hey, be nice to those little guys! They’re just doing what comes naturally to them!”

“You were the one to ask about it!” cried Percy, perhaps a little more indignantly than was necessary in Keyleth’s opinion. “Do you actually mean squirrels, or are we talking about you?”

“Of course we’re talking about me!” Keyleth cried back “Who else were we meant to be talking about?”

“I don’t know,” moaned Percy, leaning his head on top of hers “Just ask me straight out Keyleth. What is it you want to know? With no squirrels this time.”

Keyleth took a deep breath “Okay so, everyone is always talking about falling in love right? And then sometimes they’re not in love because people like Grog go to those houses and kiss people without being in love with them,”

“I think Grog does a bit more than kiss those women but continue.”

“Yeah well, that as well,”  said Keyleth, rolling her eyes and trying not to think of Grog in that particular Scenario “But like, most people just seem to _know_ about their feelings. Like, someone kisses them and they go: oh yeah! I’m in love with them! I have feelings that are the feelings of love but, but, how do they _know_?”

“How do you know you’re in love with someone?” repeated Percy,

“Yes! That!” said Keyleth, pointing straight at him “I knew you would know!”

“Well I’m not sure I do…” hummed Percy, staring at his flagon “I mean, I guess loving someone is finding someone you enjoy spending time with? Who makes you happy and feel safe. Someone who just, understands you. They make you feel special, I guess. That's what all the books say anyway.” 

Keyleth nodded carefully. That made sense. That was similar to what she’d been expecting but then, “but _you_ make me feel all those things Percy! How do I know I’m not in love with you?”

Percy blinked at her, and seemed just as taken aback but the revelation as she was “I don’t know, maybe you are in love with me! Maybe I’m in love with you too!”

“Oh not another one!” groaned Keyleth, flinging her head back against the wall.

“Hey, hey” Percy shook her excitedly “look if _I’m_ in love with _you_ maybe that’s fine because _you_ might be in love with _me_ too!”

Keyleth drunkenly batted him away “Oh shut up Percy, I’m not in love with you,”

He folded his arms and took on a defensive stance, his manner becoming more pretentious “How do you know? You said, you didn’t know what love was.”

“I just, I _know_ that I know…. Wait, do I know?” she frowned, cocking her head to look at him more carefully.

“Ha! See!” Percy said triumphantly, wagging a finger at her “You could _totally_ be in love with me.”

“But that doesn’t solve any problems,” whined Keyleth, collapsing back onto the table in a heap, her voice now muffled by the wood “How can I be maybe in love with you and then maybe in love with Vax and maybe in love with Kash?”

Percy patted her gently on the back, resting his head on top of hers, careful to avoid her antlers “You can love lots of people at once. Probably. I mean, that makes sense. Only ever loving one person seems very narrow minded.”

“But simpler.” she moaned into the table

“Yes, probably much much simpler.” he kissed the top of her head and she could feel him already starting to fall asleep on top of her. It was nice this, sharing space with Percy. She thought about it some more, fiddling with the edge of her empty flaggon. Kash had kissed her but it had happened a bit suddenly to process correctly. But it had felt, alright? Not bad, and it had certainly made her think about their relationship. She hadn’t kissed Vax, but Vax hadn’t kissed _her_ either. Yet there were times when there was just, a Something between them. Something that felt like it needed to be acted upon. Maybe that ‘something’ was a kiss? And if kissing was the way to figure things out, then maybe that’s what was needed right now.

Because the more she thought of Percy, the more it seemed to make sense that she was in love with him. It was like Percy had said, they enjoyed one another’s company, she could confide in him no matter what, and there was a special connection between them that she didn’t feel with the others. He was relatively handsome, she supposed, when he wasn’t covered in soot or snoring on top of her. She wiggled out of his grasp and only felt a twinge of remorse as his head dropped down and woke him up with a start.

“I wasn’t sleeping!” he cried to the room in general “I was not,” he turned back to Keyleth “I wasn’t sleeping on you I was resting my eyes.”

He looked so prim and proper when he said it, and Keyleth felt a deep burst of affection. Maybe affection was all that mattered? “I’ve got a way of knowing.” She said, looking at him as seriously as she could manage with crooked antlers “Do you wanna know too?”

“Know what?” he blinked, his glasses equally crooked

“If you love me!”

“Oh that.” He said, seemingly to brush off her question, but there was a look on his face that said he wanted to know too-- he just didn't want to be the one to act on it. Keyleth squinted through the golden haze of ale and decided that maybe she should be the one to just take the risk for a change.

She stood up as straight as she could given the circumstances, grabbed him by the collar, waited a second to see if he wanted to pull away, and then smashed their mouths together. There was a second of hesitation, and just when it seemed Percy might kiss her back the moment was gone again as they both simultaneously pulled away. Laughing harder than they had all night.

“Well that's one way to work things out!” Grinned Percy, wiping at his mouth. Keyleth nodded in agreement, still quietly proud of herself for taking the initiative. A few months ago she’d not have thought herself capable of it.

She was glad how certain this felt. She knew, for once she actually knew how she felt! It wasn't that it had felt _weird_ kissing Percy, that wasn't quite the word. It just didn't really feel like anything? There was nothing there. It didn't feel special, or exciting, or embarrassing. Not like it had with Kash. Kissing Percy’s lips felt a lot like kissing Percy's cheek. A good way to show her affection, but it was still purely a platonic feeling. Kissing him didn't feel like a big deal, because there was no deal to be had.

Percy’s smile told her he felt the same way, he knocked against her side, grinning “Thanks for the kiss though, it's been a while.”

“No problem, I’d say anytime but…”

“I am not eager to repeat the experience either.” He laughed, “We are definitely friends though.”

“Worst,” she laughed, pulling him into a giant hug that he instinctively squirmed against “We’re best friends until the very end.”

“Promise?” came a small voice into her shoulder, smaller than she’d ever heard him.

“Until the very end.” She answered, and she felt him squeeze her back, nuzzling into her shoulder. They'd not hugged like this in a while, and it was wonderful. This was what she needed right now, what they both needed, and it was absolutely enough.

“I love you Keyleth.” He muttered into her shoulder “Whatever happens next with the Briarwoods, I want you to know that I love you.”

“And I love you too,” she answered, refusing to let him go.

Kissing and romance were all well and good, but she could live without it for now. Just so long as she had a friend by her side to guide her through it, and in turn, she would do the same for them. Just as she always had, and just as she would always do. After all, that's was what love was all about.

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoyed this? Let me know via Kudos/Comments or on Tumblr where I'm mrsmarymorstan =)


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